I never posted here much, but have followed the site. and sadly, today we lost our Lucy. She was a red pure bred doberman pincher, 8 yrs old, and with more personality than a lot of people I know. One of the reason I wanted to post this was to warn others. We lost Lucy to bloat and (i believe) twisted stomach. I'm still shocked at how fast it happened, and how quickly we lost her. at 6 PM, as we do every day, we fed her and our other dog their usual food and quantity of it. later in the evening she was acting like she was a little sick, but showed no signs that she would be dead in less than 7 hours. When I got up for work at 4 am and saw her I knew something was seriously wrong. her stomach had bloated up to the point where she could barely walk. we of course called the nearest emergency clinic to bring her in but unfortunately we lost her before we could even get her in the car. It was a life that ended far sooner than it should have, and in one fail swoop I lost my dog best friend, and most loyal companion all at once.

In closing, I've done a bit of reading on this and have found it's far more common then I ever knew. Be aware of it, the signs, symptoms and emergency treatment needed to save your dog. when it happens, you can literally be looking at a window of only a few hours to save your dog, and window that closed for me before I could do anything.

Most of what is believed to cause or prevent this condition is anecdotal and there is very little hard fact. but because it's digestive related, and probably tied to eating, it most often strikes in the middle of the night, as it did to me.

The truth of the matter, no one knows for sure what causes bloat - there is lots of speculation - stress, food, meal sizes, exercising after meals, water intake, raised feeders, and even genetics. All we can do is educate ourselves and do what we think is best by our dogs.

I am so sorry for your loss. I know only too well how fast it happens, We lost our precious Greta to this. As soon as we knew what was happening we rushed her to emergency but just like you it was too late.

thank you all for the kind words, it has helped. everybody's still in shock a little, but it's gotten better. and thank you Loki Love for pointing out that so little is know of this condition, or stomach twisting. not to repeat myself, but a lot of why I wanted to post the bad news here was to warn others. for anybody who doesn't know much about it, I implore you to read up on it. and for those that do, don't hesitate at the first sign it may be happening. by my estimation, based on her condition when I found her about 8 hours after it probably happened, I doubt I had more than a 4 hour window to do something. as bad as she was, even if I had got her to the emergency vet (which isn't actually that far away) I doubt they could have safely sedated and operated on her. and part of me wonders if it wasn't for the best. she was a massive doberman, a breed that typically lives 10-11 years. due to her size, she was probably looking at less than that. not sure that surgery involving permanently attaching her stomach to her ribs would have been easy on her, or even in her best interest. it may have been keeping her alive for our benefit rather than hers. not to get the wrong idea, if given the option I would have done it in a heartbeat. just not totally sure it would have been in her best interest.

but there is some good new. I contacted the breeder we bought Lucy from. He felt pretty bad about it and is going to move us up a few notches on his waiting list and give us a pup from the next litter he breeds, probably in Jan. and the best part is, he actually will be using a cousin of Lucy's with one of his best males. I couldn't believe it when he said he would do it. so now we get a few months to remember Lucy and prepare for the next one.

but one more time, thank you all............you made a very tough time a little bit easier. and I just have to throw this last picture out there, was always one of my favorites